AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER19
Nana Pratt tried to hug me ten times before she gave up. I felt the whoosh of air as her arms sliced through me.
“I get it; you’re grateful,” I told her. “You can stop trying to show me.” I’d barely passed through the gate to the Castle when Nana Pratt and Ray pounced for news on Ashley. Nana didn’t even comment on my current unseemly condition.
“As much as I want to see my Ashley again, I don’t want to see her on this side of things,” Nana Pratt said. “Did she say when she’ll come by to say hello?”
“Give her a chance to recover first. She’s pretty traumatized by the whole ordeal.” I figured I’d let Steven tell his sister the details of her rescue, the ones he knew anyway.
“Did you know about the crossroads?” I asked, unlocking the front door.
“The what?” Ray asked.
I pushed open the door. “Never mind. You’ve never heard of people going missing from Fairhaven?” If what Kane told me was true, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn there’d been hundreds of incidents over the years.
“I’ve heard tales of people going missing. UFOs in the mountains and that sort of thing,” Nana Pratt said. I noticed that she and Ray remained on the porch even though I was now inside.
“Why didn’t you mention it in relation to Ashley?” I asked.
Her eyes widened incredulously. “Do you think I believed any of it?”
“You assumed people left of their own accord, the same way other people believe Ashley ran away.”
She nodded. “Now, of course, I see things differently.”
I bet she did.
“Why doesn’t anybody do anything about it?” Nana Pratt lamented. “If there’s a long history of disappearances, it seems to me something ought to be done.”
“What do you recommend?” I asked, not unkindly. “Most of you don’t believe the people are truly missing, and most of you don’t know about the crossroads or the supernatural world. So, what’s the solution?”
Nana’s gaze dropped to the lines in the floorboards. “I see your point.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to shower and go straight to bed.”
The ghosts crowded in the doorway. “Do what you need to, dear,” Nana Pratt said.
I slept like the dead. By the time I awoke, the sun was high in the sky. Despite my aching muscles, I felt rested, which was a good thing because I had work to do today. I’d fallen woefully behind thanks to Ashley.
I scrambled eggs and added spinach and feta because I was feeling fancy. I washed it down with hot tea. I spent the day with my headphones on and music blasting in my ears as I tackled the downstairs half bath. I cleared my mind of recent events and focused only on the task in front of me. It felt good.
The ward alerted me to another visitor. I glanced out the window to see Chief Garcia saunter across the bridge toward the Castle. She paused to peer down at the moat before continuing to the house. Grabbing a nearby broom, I opened the front door and intercepted her on the porch under the guise of coming outside to sweep.
“Chief Garcia, what a nice surprise. Welcome to the Castle.”
She squinted at the monstrosity behind me. “I guess it’s the interior you’re working on.”
“Those rooms won’t make themselves habitable.”
She smirked. “No, I suppose they won’t.”
I leaned on the broom handle. “What brings you here?”
“I wanted to say thank you for finding Ashley. This town owes you a debt of gratitude.”
“Not at all. Steven and I had a deal.” And we’d now fulfilled our obligations to each other.
Her brow creased. “I didn’t realize the Bridger farm was a religious cult. I don’t know how I missed it. It seems so obvious now, when I think about it.”
